Grade 10 Art - Day 63: "Visual Literacy - See and Describe, Pt. 2"

Assignment Part Two: Good and full descriptions are the prerequisite of well-thought out interpretations. Part two of this Writing Assignment asks you to do a self-assessment of the description you wrote of Barbara Kruger's Untitled ("Surveillance is your busywork") , 1983. To do so: Read the following description of the same photograph and then write 200 to 300 words comparing your description to this one and giving yourself advice on where your description could have been improved. Also, note where you have been able to "see" things or to describe more clearly than the following description. Notice, too, when issues of terminology or knowledge of forms of production has hindered or helped your "seeing."


"'Surveillance' and Internal Context: This is a black and white photograph with words superimposed upon it -- 'Surveillance is your busywork.' A man is peering at us through a photographer's lupe, a magnifying device for closely examining negatives, contact prints, slides, and photographs. The lupe is a fixed-focus device, a cube, and he has it and his other hand against something, perhaps a pane of glass, a window, or a light table used for viewing negatives and transparencies. One of his eyes is closed, the other open. The light source is directly in front of his face, and it is harsh, revealing pores of skin and stubbles of whiskers. He looks to be in his forties or fifties. He is intent and, on the basis of the photograph, would be difficult to identify. The photograph in 'Surveillance' . . . is dramatically lit and shot from a dramatic angle and distance--reminiscent of black and white Hollywood movies on late-night television, tough-guy cops-and-robbers movies.

The photograph is approximately square. It was shot either from a distance with a telephoto lens or from very close with a normal lens. . . . The word surveillance is larger than the other words, in black type on a white strip, pasted at a slight diagonal above the man's eyes. The phrase "is your busywork" is at the bottom of the image, in white type on a black strip. The words are a declaratory sentence."

Terry Barrett, Criticizing Photographs: An Introduction to Understanding Images , p. 105

Lesson Inspired by: Elsa Barkley Brown, Departments of Women's Studies and History, University of Maryland